(Republish of chapter) Hey, guys. Chapter 5 is here. I know I said I might put smut in this chapter, but it's still completely smutless. However it is about a eight hundred words longer than my other chapters, so I hope you find it in your hearts to forgive me for keeping it PG. Also, for those who don't know who the Armored and Colossal Titans are, spoiler alert. This chapter begins the battle of Trost. Enjoy.
Chapter 5:
Eren and Annie sat down at a table, separated from the rest of the cadets. Not by choice, rather, when they told "a few people" about being together, those few people spread the rumor like wildfire, and suddenly, the two of them were "the cute couple", more of a spectacle to watch from afar than anything else. People would look at them from afar during lunches, whispering quietly among themselves and giggling. The teasing was also pretty insufferable, especially from Reiner.
Annie knew Eren didn't mind much, but it bothered her. She didn't like being the center of focus among large groups, but at least Eren could be openly affectionately with her now.
The couple finished their dinner and stood up. Eren took Annie's tray and put both of them up on the counter.
Eren was always doing that, little gestures that made her life a little bit more convenient. The only way she could really describe it to herself was that Eren was being a gentleman. Annie realized that she didn't really do anything nice for him, and suddenly felt a little guilty. He was always showing her how much she cared, and she never did the same.
He made his way back to her and walked her outside, and kissed her on the nose. Annie felt self-conscious about it a lot, so it was refreshing to know that it was one of his favorite features about her.
"Eren," Annie said as the pair sat down in their usual spot behind the cabins, the spot they had Annie's birthday meal in. Eren sat with his legs crossed, and Annie seated herself in his lap, tucking in her knees so that Eren could wrap his arms all the way around her and place his chin on her shoulder.
"Yeah?" Eren cocked his head slightly.
"I care about you a lot. You know that, right?"
"Of course." Eren smiled and pulled her closer to him, and kissed her cheek.
"Good." Annie said, resting her head against Eren's.
"Are you worried that I don't know that, Annie?"
"A little." Annie confessed, earning her another squeeze from Eren.
"Well, don't." Eren said. "I think you look more beautiful when you're not worried about anything."
It wasn't the only thing worrying Annie, though. Graduation was a few months away, and Eren, despite being one of the best in the class, still had his heart set on joining the Scouts.
Annie knew how often members of the Scouting Regiment were killed in action. She didn't want Eren to become another statistic. She wanted him safe, within the walls, at least until she could figure out how to save him. Annie still, after all, had an obligation to carry out her duty.
"Eren?" Annie asked again.
"What is it?"
"Why do you want to join the Scouts so badly? With the way you're performing, you could make the top ten and be eligible for the Military Police."
"Annie, you know that isn't what I want." Eren replied, somewhat glumly.
"You don't want to be safe, with me?" Annie implored.
"No, that's..." Eren sighed. Annie could feel him becoming somewhat upset. "Annie, are you sure you want to know the truth, because you'd better be ready to handle it."
Annie went silent for a long time. "Would you be okay with telling me?"
Eren nodded. "I trust you."
Annie's heart skipped a beat. He just said he trusts me. She thought. Trust? That wasn't something that came naturally, it wasn't something Annie took lightly. It was synonymous with someone putting their life in someone else's hands. Trust carried a tremendous amount of responsibility and care.
"Yes," Annie replied. "I want to know."
Eren sighed, preparing himself. He had wanted to tell her for awhile, but he had never previously had a good chance. "When Armin and I were kids, before we met Mikasa, he showed me this book. It was about all of the amazing things that lay outside the walls. Bodies of saltwater so big that no merchant would be able to deplete it, mountains so enormous they take weeks to climb, lakes of fire, and giant landmasses made entirely of ice... I want to go and see all of them. There's so much out there, a life in the walls couldn't possibly even hold a candle."
Eren's pictured such wonders in his head, wonders that seemed a million miles away. He could feel Annie watching them curiosity. And then he thought of the real world, the situation that humankind was in. The oppression that they were subject to under the titans.
"The reason," Eren said, his face twisting and contorting into a determined rage, "that we can't go and see them is because of all the damn titans that keep us all caged in here like livestock."
"I hate them." Eren muttered, "I'm going to drive them out of this world, and kill them all."
Annie was reminded of what she was, deep down. A twang of hurt shot through her chest and for the hundredth time, she felt self-loathing tug at her heart. "Why?" She asked, "Why do you hate them so much?"
"The day that Shiganshina fell," Eren said, "when the Colossal Titan kicked in the gate, a piece of rubble landed on my house. It..." Eren took a breath, steadying himself. "My mother was still inside. The house collapsed on top of her. By the time Mikasa and I got there, a Titan had spotted her."
Eren could feel tears begin to make their way to his eyes and willed them to stay inside.
"My mother told us to run, that her legs had been broken and that she wanted us to leave her and save ourselves." It flashed before his eyes again. "We tried to help, we weren't going to just let her die. But then a Garrison soldier came and carried us away... As we were running away, though, the titan had picked her up... I could..."
Eren couldn't hold the tears back any more. They slowly and quietly began to stream down his cheeks.
"I could see her legs flailing around when it picked her up. She... She was kicking around. She wouldn't have been able to do that with broken legs..." Eren buried his head in Annie's shoulder, quietly sobbing. "It was smiling..." He muttered. "The stupid fucking titan was smiling when it killed her. I saw the blood spill out of her when it tore her in half. My own mom..."
"Shh," Annie comforted, rubbing Eren's back and planting a quick kiss on the side of Eren's head. "It's okay. I'm... I'm here for you."
It was a tremendous relief for Eren, to get all of that off his chest. It felt good to tell Annie, it made up for the hell of living through all of it again. He sat up and looked at her. Her eyes looked on the verge of tears themselves. Eren took a deep breath and released, steadying himself.
"Thank you, Annie." he said. "That really helped. I just feel so alone sometimes."
"You aren't alone, though, Eren. You've got Armin, and Mikasa..." Annie's voice trailed. "And me. I'm always going to be here for you."
Eren was immensely appreciative of that. He knew how much she cared about him, and how hard it was for her to break down the barrier of feigned apathy that had been second nature to her. Once again, he felt a swell of pride at the thought that of all people, she had chosen him to open up to.
"Annie?" Eren asked.
"Hm?"
"When this war is over... When we've won, and the titans are all dead... I'm going to take you to see the world outside the walls. We're going to climb the mountains, and sail the seas, and have lots of adventures."
Eren didn't hear a verbal response, but Annie grabbed his hand with both of hers and kissed it.
Yeah, Eren thought, you and me, until the end.
"Annie," a voice called out. The cadets were getting ready for the end of the day, and Annie was slipping out of her training gear and into her shorts and white t-shirt. Her gift from Eren was still laid out on her bed. She had slept with it every night since Eren got it for her.
Annie turned to see the owner of the voice. It was Mikasa.
"A word?" Mikasa said, turning and walking away. It was more of a demand than a request, and Annie finished putting on her clothes and followed her outside, where they were out of earshot.
"What is it?" Annie asked Mikasa, glowering. They had put aside their rivalry for the sake of Eren, but they were still not really comfortable with each other.
"Annie, I'm going to make this abundantly clear, so listen up." Annie didn't like Mikasa's tone. Hostility dripped from her voice. She could have started an argument, but she elected not to.
"I'm listening," Annie said through gritted teeth.
"Good. Eren is important to me, got it? I made a promise, years ago, to protect him from everything and everyone. I don't really care for you myself, but Eren cares about you a lot. So if you do anything to hurt him, anything at all..." Mikasa glared murderously, and Annie returned the look. "...I will kill you. Understand?"
As if Annie would ever intentionally hurt the only person that made her feel happy. "You'd be welcome to try." She challenged, and turned around to walk away, leaving Mikasa behind for the warmth of the cabin interior.
The rest of training went by quickly, and soon, graduation night was upon them. Shadis had called in Mikasa, Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie, Eren, Jean, Marco, Connie, Sasha, and Krista into his quarters before the rest of the cadets formed up in front of the stage.
"Congratulations." Shadis spoke. "You guys made the top ten. In the order that I called you in, I want you to march on the stage in front of your peers so they can bask in your glory. You guys can join the Military Police in two days if you want."
Jean, Connie, Sasha, Marco, and Krista cheered. Annie turned to Eren and saw him looking off nonchalantly. He obviously still wanted to join the Scouts. She was slightly disappointed. After Shadis dismissed them, they walked to their designated position and made their way onto the stage, in front of everybody. Annie looked out and saw everybody looking up at her and the other cadets, some admiring, some jealous.
The ten of them stepped back down and rejoined the main cadet body, and after a speech from Shadis and a couple other military officials, left for dinner.
During the feast, everybody seemed so happy. Annie, however, was feeling conflicted. She knew that the time that she had to freely spend with Eren was about to come to an end, and they'd be able to see each other significantly less very soon. She also knew that her mission was about to go underway, and was doubting everything. She needed some time alone, so she sat away from Eren and the others during dinner.
"Are you insane?!" A boy screamed. The room went silent. All heads turned in the direction of the voice. It was a blonde boy with short hair and sideburns.
Oh, Annie thought, Thomas. And then she saw Eren standing next to him, looking at him with confusion and determination.
Thomas realized that everybody was looking at him. "How many people have died? We're talking a fifth of the population, here."
Everybody knew what he was talking to. The territory retrieval operation, where most of the refugees from within Maria were slaughtered in a bogus military "assault."
"If that doesn't put this into perspective for you, I don't know what does." Thomas continued. "This is our life now. There's no beating them."
The cheeriness of the room had fallen to the floor and shattered into nothingness, replaced with a numbing sense of dread and hopelessness.
"So what?" Annie could hear Eren answer with his usual fiery conviction. "Do we surrender? Let the titans do whatever they want with us? Things have changed. Sure, only slightly, but that's enough. They aren't the mystery they were five years ago. We still have a ways to go, but we've made progress. Every battle we lost gave us valuable information, gave us the tiniest shred of something like hope."
Annie looked over at her boyfriend. So this is how he feels... She thought.
"Are you telling me it's better to just cut our losses, and let all of that defeat and death be meaningless, just swallow it and be done? I don't think so! Humanity's future lies outside of these fucking walls, and I'm gonna lead us there! I'm gonna take back what they robbed us of!"
Even from this distance, Annie could see all the pain of Eren's past translating into raw, unadulterated rage. "I'm going to fight them. And as long as at least one person can say that, this war is not over."
Eren seemed to notice that a crowd had formed around, listening to his monologue, and turned to run away. Mikasa and Armin followed.
Later, Annie thought, I'll go to him later.
The next day, Eren stood atop the wall performing cannon maintenance with his squad and another. He was startled to realize that between last night and now, quite a few people, even among the top ten, had decided to join the Scouts instead of the "safe" regiments.
"Your little speech had nothing to do with it!" Connie insisted.
"Relax, Connie, it isn't just you."
Eren turned to see Mina, grinning ear to ear. She and Nac were holding hands. Eren knew that she had a crush on the taller boy, and smiled. They had finally gotten together, it seemed. Millius and Thomas were behind them.
"Wait, all of you decided to join the scouts?"
"Guys!" Another voice called off. It was Sasha, running towards them, hiding something underneath her jacket and grinning insanely. She slowed to a halt in front of them. "I stole some meat from the officers' quarters." She opened her jacket to reveal a hunk of red flesh wrapped in a net.
The entire group was mortified. "Sasha!" Thomas screamed, "Do you have any idea how rare meat is? You're gonna be hung!"
"Don't worry." Sasha waved her hand. "Once we retake Wall Maria, we'll have plenty of room to grow livestock."
Eren smiled. Yeah, that's right.No more running from the titans. From here on out, we are going to be the ones who attack. The age of titans is over.
The events that happened next confused Eren.
A flash of lightning
A giant cloud of steam
And then, suddenly, he was back.
The Colossal Titan that kicked in the gate of Shiganshina was back, just like Eren remembered him. Skinless body, gaping mouth, sixty meters of terrifying, monstrous flesh. It let out a blast of steam, and Eren was sent flying back. He shot his hooks out and caught the wall. He could see the other cadets had done the same, and Sasha had used one of her hooks to grab onto a cadet who had been unable to react in time.
Purpose and rage flooded through Eren's system as he sprung into action. "Don't let him get away! This is our chance!" He called out to the other cadets as he propelled himself forward. He used his inertia to launch himself into the air, and landed on the wall. He held the Colossal Titan's gaze.
"Hey," Eren snarled, "It's been five years."
The Colossal Titan swung his arm down the length of the Trost wall and brushed off the cannons as if they were clutter on a desk. The cannons? Eren thought. It's intelligent! It's gonna break the wall again!
Eren hooked onto the Titan and flung himself around, firing another cable at its back and reeling himself in for the kill. A second before the blade connected with the flesh, however, the monster let off another cloud of steam and sent Eren backwards. Eren released the reel on his cable and allowed himself to be sent backwards, and launched himself forward again. He slashed, cutting through the smoke to reveal... Nothing.
Just like five years ago, the titan had vanished.
What's more, there was a gaping fifteen-meter hole in the wall.
"Eren, what happened? Did you kill him, or did he get away?" Thomas asked from atop the wall.
"He's gone!" Eren called back. "Just like the last time!" Eren was disappointed in himself. He missed his chance to bring down the Colossal Titan and come that much closer to bringing this war to an end. Landing back on the wall, he faced his friends. "I'm sorry... I let him get away."
"Don't be sorry, look at us. We were too terrified to move."
A soldier from the Garisson appeared next to them. The cadets saluted. "The Colossal Titan contigency is in effect, cadets. Head back to HQ. If you saw the thing, report it."
"Sir," Connie exclaimed, "we pray for the advance team's success."
"Where is he?" Annie thought to herself. She knew that Eren was stationed directly above the gate, and was terrified that Eren hadn't survived the appearance of Bertholdt's Titan.
She had long since formed up with the other cadets and was anxiously awaiting Eren's return. Ah, there he was, walking with Mina, Connie, and a few others towards headquarters.
A platoon commander was addressing the cadets as they hastily prepared their gear for what was sure to be a grueling battle. "You cadets have all passed training. You are officially soldiers now. We expect that you will all bring credit to your regiment."
Annie finished preparing her gear and loading her blades. She stepped out into the assembly area and fell into formation, waiting for the field commander's orders.
"Cadets," the bearded man yelled, "split into groups. You will resupply your comrades, relay orders, and kill any Titans you encounter. The Garrison will form the vanguard. Trainees will compose the middle guard, and the rearguard will be controlled by the elites. Perform your duties knowing that the advance team has been neutralized. Titans are entering the city."
All according to plan. Annie thought to herself. She was very torn, though. Part of her was devoted to her mission, part of her wanted to call this entire thing off to take away Eren's chances of being killed.
"This means that the Armored Titan is likely to reappear as well. If he does, he will most likely destroy the inner gate as well." A disquiet followed the field commander's words. The rest of the cadets were obviously shaken. "QUIET!" The commander yelled. "Remember that abandoning your duties in the face of the enemy is punishable by death. If it comes to it, lay down your lives. We must hold off the titans until the citizens have escaped."
When the commander had finished, the cadets were broken up into squads. To Annie's disappointment, she was not assigned to the same squad as Eren. It looked like the squads were determined loosely by wall maintenance assignment earlier that day, actually.
Damn, she thought. I need Eren to be safe. If something happens to him... What would I do?
Annie saw him walking towards his squad: Millius, Nac, Mina, Thomas, and Armin. "Eren!" She called out. Eren turned and saw her, and broke into a run.
Annie crashed into Eren's chest and wrapped her arms around him, their gear clanging together awkwardly. "Eren," she said, her voice wavering ever so slightly, "are you going to be okay?"
Eren placed a hand on her head and pulled her in tighter. "I'm gonna kill a lot of titans, okay? I'm gonna make the world safer for you, for me, for us. I promise."
"Eren, I don't want this world to be safer. I need to know that you'll be safe." Annie pleaded, a very small tear rolling down her cheek. God, when was the last time that Annie cried? "Promise, please. Promise that you'll find me when this is all over?"
"I promise," Eren reassured her, wiping her tear away, "there's no force in this world that will stop me from making it back to you. I will find you when this fight is won."
Annie nodded. "Okay." She stood on her tiptoe, and Eren leaned down to close the gap. Their lips locked, as if to seal the promise, and then, Annie believed him. Eren broke away and smiled.
"I love you, Annie." He declared, before turning to run and catch up to his squad.
Annie was stunned. Nobody had ever said those words to her before. She looked at the ground, wondering how to interpret them.
You love him too, don't you? A voice inside her asked.
Annie wondered. Was it love? Did she love this boy, who had shown her nothing but compassion and never once raised his voice with her, who did everything he could to make sure that she knew he cared about her?
Yes. She thought. I do. I love Eren Yeager.
Then tell him. The voice said.
Annie looked up. "Eren!" She yelled.
But Eren was already out of sight.
Thank you for reading chapter 5 of "Annie's Heart." I hope you all enjoyed reading this, because I certainly enjoyed writing it. Please send your thoughts in the reviews :3 Also, I'm thinking of finishing my EreAnnie fanart and using it for the icon for this story. Let me know if you think it's a good idea. Thanks!